Human Cities Workshop Report

DID YOU SENSE BRUXELLES / BRUSSEL / BRUSSELS

THAT!?

Human Cities festival 15.03 - 31.03.2012

map your perceptions

reven l’es pub publie ruim herov rec public

info + www

DID YOU SENSE THAT!?

In the framework of Human Cities, this workshop was a live experiment to test how humane the city of Brussels actually is.

We invited Human Cities Symposium delegates and members of the public to a sensory exploration of public space. The workshop consisted of a small series of exercises opening the mind and preparing the senses, introductions to each sense and a tour in the public space guided by our facilitators, each a specialist in one of the senses.

WHY DOES IT MATTER? You might wonder why the senses are important in relation to public space, the background idea was that public space is a common good for urban dwellers; it belongs to everyone and is everyone’s responsibility. Thus the way public spaces are managed and operated expresses a great deal about the societal drivers, civic ownership and sense of belonging in a city. But how can the secrets of public space be unlocked?

We propose to use another shared human quality, namely our means of sensory perception, to unwrap the understanding of our common public space. Our senses apparatus consists of five senses that all evolved to guide and protect us in a wild natural environment These are still the same senses that we use to navigate in the not less wild, built environment of our cities.

Š clear-village.org 2012

Our senses are a common denominator which cuts across age, walk of life, ethnic group, linguistic affiliation, community membership, economic status, nationality, interests, and all the other barriers and categories within which we are used to regarding each other. Consequently, observing our common public spaces consciously through our senses is an inclusive exercise which everyone can participate in on an equal level, regardless of any of the above.

HEARING

TOUCHING

TASTING

SMELLING

SEEING

EXPERIENCE DESIGN The workshop took a human- centric approach, and firstly introduced sensory perspectives of public space and secondly engaged all participants in on-site exploration. In conclusion, the ambition was to document and analyse the human quality of public space, share tools on understanding and involve the public in the making of public space.

PARTICIPANTS

Š clear-village.org 2012

The workshop group was 15 people strong and fairly mixed: + 40% Brussels residents, 60% coming from outside the region + 1/3 occupied in cultural businesses; 20% architects, academics and designers, respectively, and 7% other; + a spread in age from 25 to 50 and + a gender split of women to men of 53% to 47%

PROGRAMME 14.00 Welcome & Introduction at the Royal Library of Belgium

Exercises to open mind & senses 15.30 Tour de Public space commences from Mont des Arts 16.30 Mapping of the sensory impressions,

Roof Garden of Mont des Arts 17.00 Homage to the gustatory taste by Laurent Gerbaud,

at Chocolate Gerbaud 17.30 Presentations of senses maps & discussion

Š clear-village.org 2012

OUTPUT HIGHLIGHTS Senses Perspectives + The visual map painted a picture of a sense mostly either overstimulated or bored, both rather unsatisfactory states of mind; + The olfactory sense seemed quick to judge and swung from “like” to “dislike” throughout + The hearing sensors settled on a “ground noise” and then only received information “over” the ground noise; + The tactile perceivers mapped a city with multiple hidden layers of messages Senses & People In the public space, participants agreed that their sensibility was influenced by other people sharing that same space. For some participants, the presence of others sharpened their senses, for others this was utterly disturbing. This feeling was neither exclusive to, nor overrepresented in any one group and seemed to be a more subjective trait, thus not specifically connected to any one sense.

Across senses, there was a tendency to prefer places where other people were present, when looking at the human quality of the urban public space. This is an unsurprising finding, yet nevertheless significant that it was highlighted by participants completely unprompted. Related thereto and similarly unsurprising, all agreed that, as a general point, recognisable traces of people (urine, waste, pollution,..) in the absence of people, had a negative effect of the perception of the space, both sense-specific and in general.

Senses & space Most agreed that public space is often not welcoming and instead overwhelming to the human sensory system.

Some suggested that this was due to public space offering mixed messages to the senses, whilst others felt that the confusion was caused by the many commercial actors in public space sending out sensory pulses to tempt the passer-by, for instance a smell of coffee or waffles, advertising posters, offering comfortable seats in the sun, playing jazzy tunes etc.

It was suggested that the human sensory system can sense an “appropriateness of scale” in the city, which makes out the human quality of the space, including sound and echo, natural light and wind, urban smells, surfaces and cleanliness - in short, it creates the framework for the life between the buildings, which we instinctively understand.

FACILITATORS & HOSTS

LISE COIRIER, Pro Materia, Brussels Lise is the initiator and visionary of Human Cities. She works through her company Pro Materia, which she created in 1999. It hosts a swarm of diverse activities around arts & crafts, and the link to history, communication and curation.

She has authored various publications: Design in Belgium 19452000; Made in Belgium; Industrial Archaeology in Belgium and Labeldesign and is a contributor to Textile magazine, ARTE news, isel, She is also a curator and behind the organisation of many exhibitions, competitions, jury’s and others.

One of Lise’s many competencies lies in unveiling the sensory values of flavour and at “Did you sense that!?” she was the ambassador of the difficult connection between flavour and public space.

© clear-village.org 2012

ALICE HOLMBERG, Clear Village, London Clear Village’s own co-director, Alice Holmberg, was the herald for the tactile sense. Alice has a background as designer and was, during her academic years, the co-founder of the “Institute of Haptic Interface Design”. An experimental platform purely dedicated the tactile sense, the building of a language, praxis for designers and research of its cross-pollination and impact on identity and self-perception. The latter two, seen from a societal perspective greatly influences the her work at Clear Village with communities and the participants of “Did you sense that!?” were greatly inspired by having to consciously taking in the tactile dimension of public space.

CHRISTIAN PAGH, UIWE, Copenhagen Christian founded UiWE in 2008 to combine cultural thinking and design. Improving the connections between people and their environment is Christian’s drive. He is dedicated to creating solutions that have a genuine impact on people’s lives through user-oriented innovation and filmmaking.

Christian holds an MA in Modern Culture & Philosophy and is assistant professor at Copenhagen Business School.

At the “Did you sense that!?” workshop, Christian was the agitator for the visual sense and guided the participants to enhanced visual observations in public space.

IKE UDECHUKU, Ampersand House, Brussels Ike lives and breathes art. Together with his partner, Kathryn Smith, he has founded the Ampersand House & Gallery in central Brussels, where works of art are shown in a living environment and life is exhibited in an interaction with a space that has both public and private character traits. Ike and Kathryn curate the gallery as a constantly evolving living environment, mixing vintage, contemporary and prototype work to inspire a dialogue between collectors and creatives, the inclusive and the exclusive, the private and the public. Ampersand House & Gallery exhibited a collection of works at the Human Cities festival that had a strong audio component and Ike prepared the participants of “Did you sense that!?” for the audio stimuli of public space and guided them through it.

EMILIE BONNARD, Jean Monnet University, St. Etienne Teaching at the Jean Monnet University in Southern France, Emilie dedicates herself to urban olfactory design. Her works span over scented gardens, urban furniture; vegetation smell environments and was representing the Rhône-Alps Region at the World Expo in Shanghai 2010. Her academic works on the olfactory sense has brought her a Phd in Design and we were very happy to have her at “Did you sense that!?” Emilie of course represented the olfactory dimension of public space and both guided the participants’ observation as well as carried out a couple of mind opening experiments.

LAURENT GERBAUD, Chocolats Gerbaud, Brussels Laurent is a chocolatier extraordinaire and blends chocolate, fruit and spices. Chocolats Gerbaud has existed in a central public location in Brussels since 2005, where Laurent had returned from a prolonged stay in China. He masters the rich realm of Asian tastes and smells as well as the European and creates eclectic mixes of chocolate-coated kumquats, gingers and chillies. He rounded off our sensory tour of the city by sharing a taste of wild grown chocolate and insights like „ The chocolate and every ingredient we use are noble and precious: their character can be preserved only through a hand-made treatment“ as he also talked us through what the notion of space and place means to a métier like his.

BRUXELLES / BRUSSEL / BRUSSELS

THANK YOU!

Human Cities festival 15.03 - 31.03.2012

revendiquer l’espace public / publieke ruimte heroveren/ reclaiming public space info + free booking: www.humancities.eu

Š clear-village.org 2012

map your perceptions Thanks to all participants for passion & contributions, to Human Cities for inviting us, in particular to Lise Coirier for being our host and ambassador, to IUWE for both planning cocreation, facilitation and images, to Emilie Bonnard for facilitation and live experiments, to Ike Idechuku for facilitation and not least to Laurent Gerbaud for inspiration, use of his space -and chocolates!

LEARN MORE

CONTACT

www.humancities.eu www.promateria.be www.uiwe.dk www.chocolatsgerbaud.be www.ampersandhouse.com

Clear Village www.clear-village.org Alice Holmberg alice@clear-village.org Thomas Ermacora thomas@clear-village.org